Samsung L210 Exposure

Samsung L210 Exposure

Color

Saturation & Hue Accuracy Less than accurate color with oversaturation in strong reds and blues.

In the diagram above, the squares show the original color, and the circles show the color that the camera captured. More saturated colors are located towards the periphery of the graph. Hue changes as you travel around the center. Thus, hue-accurate, highly saturated colors appear as lines radiating from the center.

Saturation. The Samsung L210 oversaturates strong reds and blues quite a bit, but this is fairly common among consumer digital cameras. Yellows are actually undersaturated a small amount. Most consumer digital cameras produce color that's more highly saturated (more intense) than found in the original subjects. This is simply because most people like their color a bit brighter than life.

Skin tones. Here, with the color balanced properly for the light source, the L210's Caucasian skin tones had a slight pink cast, while darker skin tones were pushed toward yellow slightly. However, performance here is still pleasing. Where oversaturation is most problematic is on Caucasian skin tones, as it's very easy for these "memory colors" to be seen as too bright, too pink, too yellow, etc.

Hue. The Samsung L210 showed several color shifts relative to the correct mathematical translation of colors in its subjects, pushing cyan toward blue, red toward orange, and yellow toward green. Performance here is a little less than average, but overall color is generally good. Hue is "what color" the color is.

Color balance indoors under incandescent lighting was warm and reddish in Auto white balance mode, while the Incandescent setting produced more of a greenish cast. Manual mode produced the most accurate overall color, though it too appeared just a little magenta in some places and overall slightly cool. Still, white values measure out to be almost perfect in Manual mode. The Samsung L210 required a +0.3 EV exposure compensation boost to get a bright exposure, which is about average. Our test lighting
for this shot is a mixture of 60 and 100 watt household incandescent bulbs,
a pretty yellow light source, but a very common one in typical home settings
here in the U.S.

Outdoors, daylightGenerally good color and exposure outdoors.

Auto White Balance,
+0.3 EV

Auto White Balance,
Auto Exposure

Outdoors, the Samsung L210 handled harsh lighting pretty well, producing only slightly high contrast with pretty good midtones. Shadow detail falls apart, however, due mostly to noise and noise suppression efforts. The camera's adjustable contrast setting did help even out the exposure some, but also resulted in a brighter overall exposure. The Samsung L210 also has an Auto Contrast Balance mode, which automatically adjusts the contrast depending on the severity of conditions. It too tended toward a slightly brighter exposure, but results were definitely more even.

Our laboratory resolution chart revealed sharp, distinct line patterns down to about 1,500-1,600 lines per picture height in both directions. While lines are distinguishable here, they aren't overly clear. Extinction began around 1,950 lines. Use these numbers to compare with other cameras of similar resolution, or use them to see just what higher resolution can mean in terms of potential detail.

Definition of high-contrast
elements is affected by
noise suppression and there's
evidence of edge enhancement.

Subtle detail: HairNoise suppression blursdetail in areas of subtle contrast,
as in the darker parts of hair here.

Sharpness. The Samsung L210 captures a lot of fine detail, though
detail definition suffers from noise suppression. In high contrast areas,
the camera produces bright enhancement artifacts, such as along the trim
in the crop above left. Edge enhancement creates the illusion of sharpness
by enhancing colors and tones right at the edge of a rapid transition in
color or tone.

Detail. The crop above right shows moderately high noise suppression,
with the darker areas of hair showing limited detail. Individual strands
become lost even in the moderate shadows. Noise-suppression systems in
digital cameras tend to flatten-out detail in areas of subtle contrast.
The effects can often be seen in shots of human hair, where the individual
strands are lost and an almost "watercolor" look appears.

The Samsung L210 handles image noise pretty well at ISOs 80 and 100, which
you'd expect. Starting at ISO 200, noise suppression efforts become strong,
blurring detail quite a bit. By ISO 800, the entire image looks like a pastel
drawing, with very little definition at all. At ISO 1,600, noise grain becomes
more pronounced though noise suppression remains strong. The other side
effect here is cooler color casts at ISO 200 and 400, the result of more
blue noise pixels.

Sunlight. The Samsung L210 performed well under the deliberately harsh lighting in the test above, as contrast wasn't so high that it appeared overly edgy. Contrast is slightly high, but results are still not too bad considering the light source. Shadow detail is a bit limited, mostly due to noise suppression. At +0.3 EV, the highlights on the white shirt are a tad hot, but the default exposure was too dim overall. The Samsung L210 features an adjustable contrast setting, as well as an Auto Contrast Balance mode. Both options lighten the overall exposure in their attempts to even out tones, but results are still pretty good. Be sure to use fill flash in situations like the one shown above; and it's better to shoot in the shade when possible.

Because digital cameras are more like slide film than negative film (in that they tend to have a more limited tonal range), we test them in the harshest situations to see how they handle scenes with bright highlights and dark shadows, as well as what kind of sensitivity they have in low light. The shot above is designed to mimic the very harsh, contrasty effect of direct noonday sunlight, a very tough challenge for most digital cameras. (You can read details of this test here.)

1 fc
11 lux

1/2 fc
5.5 lux

1/4 fc
2.7 lux

1/8 fc
1.3 lux

1/16 fc
0.67 lux

ISO
80

4 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

ISO
100

3 sec
f2.8

6 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

ISO
200

1.5 sec
f2.8

3 sec
f2.8

6 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

8 sec
f2.8

ISO
400

0.7 sec
f2.8

1.5 sec
f2.8

3 sec
f2.8

4 sec
f2.8

4 sec
f2.8

ISO
800

0.3 sec
f2.8

0.7 sec
f2.8

1.5 sec
f2.8

2 sec
f2.8

2 sec
f2.8

ISO
1600

1/6 sec
f2.8

0.3 sec
f2.8

0.7 sec
f2.8

1 sec
f2.8

1 sec
f2.8

Low light. The Samsung L210 was slightly limited in terms of low-light performance, as not even the highest sensitivity setting produced what I would call bright results at the lowest light level. However, at ISO 200 and above, images were bright to about 1/8 foot-candle, and at ISOs 100 and 80, images were bright to about 1/4 foot-candle. The test target was visible at the lower light levels, just quite dim. Color balance was cool from the Auto white balance in many shots. The camera's AF system had trouble with low lighting, able to focus only down to just under the 1/8 foot-candle light level with and without AF assist enabled. Thus, the AF system doesn't keep up with the exposure system too well here.

How bright is this? The one foot-candle light level
that this test begins at roughly corresponds to the brightness of typical
city street-lighting at night. Cameras performing well at that level should
be able to snap good-looking photos of street-lit scenes.

NOTE: This low light test is conducted with a stationary subject,
and the camera mounted on a sturdy tripod. Most digital cameras will
fail miserably when faced with a moving subject in dim lighting. (For
example, a child's ballet recital or a holiday pageant in a gymnasium.)
For such applications, you may have better luck with a digital SLR camera,
but even there, you'll likely need to set the focus manually. For information
and reviews on digital SLRs, refer to our SLR
review index page.

Flash

Coverage and RangeModest flash power at close range, though coverage is fairly uniform.
Exposure compensation has no effect on shots in the
normal flash mode, though does help Slow-Sync mode.

34mm equivalent

102mm equivalent

Normal Flash, Default Exposure

Slow-Sync Flash, +0.3 EV

Flash coverage was only slightly uneven at wide angle, and actually pretty
good at telephoto as well. In the Indoor test, the Samsung L210's flash underexposed our subject at its default setting, but increasing the exposure compensation had no effect on overall brightness. The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced much brighter and more even results, though with a slight warm cast from the background lighting. Though results are a bit warm, the Slow-Sync image seems more natural because of the ambient lighting.

Flash Range: Wide Angle

6 ft

7 ft

8 ft

9 ft

10 ft

11 ft

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

12 ft

13 ft

14 ft

15 ft

16 ft

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

1/45 sec
f2.8
ISO 100

Flash Range: Telephoto

6 ft

7 ft

8 ft

9 ft

10 ft

11 ft

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

12 ft

13 ft

14 ft

15 ft

16 ft

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

1/90 sec
f5.2
ISO 100

ISO 100 Range. At wide angle and ISO 100, flash intensity began
to decrease from about 10 feet on. At telephoto, flash power maintained
the same intensity to about 7 feet, decreasing in brightness at 8 feet and
beyond.

Manufacturer-Specified Flash Range

Wide Angle

Telephoto

15.4 feet
ISO 240

8.2 feet
ISO 160

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. In the shots above, the L210
almost performs as Samsung says it will, though it had to raise the sensitivity
slightly at both wide angle and telephoto settings. Our standard test
method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair
basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots
using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company
claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the specific claims.

Output Quality

The Samsung L210 was able to produce good 11x14-inch prints at ISO 80 and 100. Though onscreen we saw an odd edge enhancement combined with detail smoothing that gives many objects a surreal, painted look, the same image looks pretty good printed at this size. Raising the print size to 13x19 inches results in much softer detail, but again the odd appearance that we see onscreen isn't as obvious in the print.

ISO 200 shots are pretty good at 11x14, but if you look closely you won't like the level of detail; at arm's length, it's not bad. ISO 400 shots really need to be printed at 8x10 to keep acceptable sharpness; and even then, some low-contrast areas will remain soft.

ISO 800 shots are decent at 5x7, with a very smooth softness that isn't offensive. If you're looking for detail, you'll be disappointed, but from a distance, it looks like a good print. ISO 1,600 shots are too soft for my taste, but the noise is very well controlled, making for an acceptable image in most cases. Again, low-contrast detail suffers terribly.

Testing hundreds of digital cameras, we've found
that you can only tell just so much about a camera's image quality by viewing
its images on-screen. Ultimately, there's no substitute for printing a lot of images and examining them closely. For this reason, we now routinely print sample images from the cameras we test on our Canon Pro9000 studio printer, and on the Canon iP5200 here in the office. (See the Canon Pixma Pro9000 review for details on that model.)

The images above were taken from our standardized test shots. For a
collection of more pictorial photos, see our
Samsung L210 Photo Gallery
.

Not sure which camera to buy? Let your eyes be the ultimate judge!
Visit our Comparometer(tm)
to compare images from the Samsung L210 with those from other
cameras you may be considering. The proof is in the pictures, so let
your own eyes decide which you like best!